Tuesday, January 29, 2013

One of the unique things I love about Disney is that every time we release a new film, we're able to bring those characters to life in multiple ways. A character may begin on an animator's desk at The Walt Disney Studios, but throughout its life it will likely touch many of our businesses — from becoming the theme of a Disney park experience to being part of a new line of merchandise. Often times, this happens even before the film is released.

An early example of this process was the building of Sleeping Beauty Castle. Sleeping Beauty, which celebrates its 54th anniversary today, was in development while Walt Disney was building his dream of Disneyland. To help promote the film, Walt decided to name his castle after Sleeping Beauty — using the centerpiece of Disneyland as a tool to immerse guests in the now beloved classic.

And here's a fun fact for you: Many people wondered why Sleeping Beauty Castle was only 77 feet tall. Walt explained that unlike some of the intimidating castles built by European monarchs, he wanted his castle to feel friendly and welcoming. Although the castle is similar to the Neushwanstein castle in Bavaria, Germany, it is actually modeled after a number of medieval European castles.

Sleeping Beauty Castle — known as Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant — is also the name of the castle that opened with Disneyland Paris (then EuroDisney) on April 12, 1992.

Today was a MORALE BOOSTER at work. Our boss had invited everyone to a Vegas back in November, but my co-worker and I decided to pass (just not our style - we let it be a boys trip). He wanted to do something fun for us in the office, so he bought some Living Social vouchers for THREE HOUR SEGWAY RENTALS!!

I'll have to admit, every time I see people on segways, I think it is pretty nerdy. I mean, think about it, who uses those things?! Out-of-shape security guards at the mall... It reminds me of Wall*E with all of the lazy people just floating around the place.

BUT we had a great time! We did about a 20 minute training/ safety course in the little show room - doing figure 8's, learning how to stop, going up and down some little ramps, etc. It was actually a little trickier than I thought it would be.

We ended up going all around Mission Bay for a good 2.5-3 hours. Most of the time we were off-roading and screwing around. We were real speed demons :) [the speed cap on them was 10 MPH]. I even learned how to drive with no hands (just using your knees) - pretty legit. Our boss even joked that I didn't have to do my work out today because of the EXTREME SEGWAY-ING :).

We didn't take too many pictures, because hey, we were cruisin' around, but I got a few of us to send to our partners.

Jodi showing off going NO HANDS

Matthew flexing because it takes so many muscles to perfect this skill

THUMBS UP

I don't know if I will ever do it again - but it was something fun to try once. Although I thought they were pretty nerdy when I saw other people on them, I didn't feel nerdy at all... Everyone was smiling at us, so of course I was waving and making small chat - but I think they were probably all smiling (and laughing inside at us) because we looked pretty NERD-TASTIC :)

Monday, January 28, 2013

Half Marathon #2 is in the books! (Sorry that I haven't written about it until now - almost a week and a half after actually completing it - I have no excuses other than I just haven't sat down and got everything together.)

Two Sundays ago I ran the Tinker Bell Half Marathon. It was my second half marathon. I actually signed up as a fluke (it was already sold out before I was even thinking about running it). runDisney had posted on their Facebook page the week leading up to Thanksgiving that there was going to be some sort of Green Friday announcement (since it was on "Black Friday" and everyone was speculating that it was going to be about the Tinker Bell race). I texted a friend and asked if it would be crazy to add another half marathon to my schedule if that was what the announcement was going to be (since I had already signed up and was training for the Princess Half Marathon at Walt Disney World in February). She obviously encouraged me to do it (thanks Megan) - saying that people do the Goofy and A Half Challenge (Half Marathon Saturday morning and Full Marathon Sunday morning) so I could probably do with adding another race a month before!

Since I already had a half marathon in the books, I decided that this one would be more of a 'fun run'. I didn't plan on stopping for pictures with characters, but I figured I didn't want to push super hard and kill my legs since I would have another race (with my sister-in-law) a month after. My out-loud goal (meaning when people asked me what I was aiming for) was 2:10 or faster (which is 9:55 minute mile pace). My inside goal (meaning what I was really shooting for) was 2:05 or faster (which is 9:35 minute mile pace). (My first half marathon I finished in 2:12, so I was just hoping to do a little better.) [Side note, my goal for the year was do run at least one half marathon under 2 hours.]

I have to say, I wasn't nervous for this race. Although the course was different from the Disneyland Half Marathon, I felt like I had already sort of run the race before. Instead of running east to the Angel's Stadium like in the Disneyland Half Marathon, in the Tinker Bell Half Marathon we ran north to City Hall and through a bit more of historic Anaheim. There were a few big differences with this race than the Disneyland one.

Photo Credit: runDisney

First, this race was in January instead of September. There are a few changes that this brings with it. A. It is colder (I think my hands were numb until about mile 10 - which is extremely difficult to take water at aid stations when you can't grip cups). B. It is darker (I brought my sun glasses, since during the DLHM we ran directly into the sun for a good chunk of the race, but held them until about mile 11 or 12) [As you can tell from the series of shots below from when I was running through Downtown Disney, Ryan was having trouble shooting in the dark as well].

Next, I was in a better corral. For the DLHM I just had to give a estimated finish time and didn't have proof of finishing time, so I was put in a further back corral. Since I had a prior finishing time (2:12 for the 2012 Disneyland Half Marathon) I was actually placed in the FIRST corral. This means that we didn't have to wait for faster waves to start. The main benefit of this was that there was less weaving that I needed to do. Everyone in Corral A had a prior finishing time of 2:15 or faster, so they were all pretty speedy and were a little more serious than the further back corrals.

Debbie Downer Alert - I didn't like the course as much as the DLHM. I don't now if it was because the DLHM was my first one so I was just super excited, or if because I enjoy baseball so I loved running through the Angel's Stadium, or if it was because I was running with a friend, but I liked the other course a lot better. As I mentioned earlier, this race was darker. And it was ESPECIALLY apparent when we were running through the Anaheim neighborhoods. Some stretches were pretty much pitch black. They had security and police along the side roads, so I know it was a secure and safe course, but it is a little difficult to run the second half of a half marathon in dark neighborhoods that you aren't familiar with. Also, there seemed to be less 'entertainment' along the route for the Tinker Bell Half Marathon. I am not sure if being dark and cold had something to do with it. Maybe the folks that were in later corrals or that were further back in the pack had more spectators and cheering sections...

All-in-all I had a great run. I was keeping around a 9 minute mile, which I knew would put me below or right around my 2:05 goal (I walked through all but one of the water stations, which does add a few seconds on my time, but much better than choking on water because I can't run and drink at the same time). Around mile 11 or so I looked at my watch and realized if I booked it I might even be able to be under 2 hours. I high-talled it in at the end and actually went sub-2 hours (by 7 seconds).

I WAS ON CLOUD NINE! I would have never thought, when I started running LESS THAN A YEAR AGO, I would be able to do what I have done! I think I had a smile on my face from ear to ear just about all day. I was so excited to have accomplished a goal that I wasn't even sure I would be able to meet IN THE FIRST RACE OF THE YEAR!

After the race they gave us our medals (the Tinker Bell even spins on the medal - so cool), a space blanket (you know the ones, made out of foil), a goodie box, banana, power aid, water, and even a bag to put it all in - which I thought was a GREAT addition! (It is awfully difficult to have just run 13.1 miles, be handed all of this stuff, and expected to carry it around when looking for your loved ones in a mass of people. )

The nice thing about a race starting at 5am, was that I was done around 7am, we were back at the hotel by 8am, and we were back home by 9am.

I am so glad that I was able to sign up for this race. Not only did I PR (personal record) by 12 minutes, I also finished my first leg of my Coast-To-Coast journey! Now on to Walt Disney World to run the Family 5K with my parents and hubby and the Princess Half Marathon with my sister-in-law.

The official results showed that I came in 657 place (which is crazy since I think there were close to 12,000 runners), 72 place in my age division, and 477 place out of all females. Not too shabby for a morning of running if I do say so myself.

It has been over a year ago since I gave up soda! I just looked back at my blog from last year and my post shows that it was January 23rd, 2012. I am pretty proud of myself. I have given it up in the past, but only stick with it for a few months. (Remember, I don't drink tea or coffee, so soda was really the way that I would 'wake up' in the morning) It is obviously a bit more difficult in the beginning - but there are still days, every once in a while, that I think some Diet Mountain Dew would be AMAZING! I don't think I will ever go back - so hold me to it :). For the most part all I am drinking is water or sports drinks (and I only do those every once in a while after a hard work out). We do keep KoolAid in the house (for when water seems a little too boring) and juice for smoothies, but other than that - H2O is my best friend!

PS How fun is the picture?! I looked up 'Soda Free' and the FIRST image is an otter telling kids to drink water... WEIRD!

I talked Ryan into running his first half marathon!! WHOO HOO!! He signed up to run the Disneyland Half Marathon with me over Labor Day Weekend. I am soooo excited! I will be participating in the Dumbo Double Dare (which is the 10K on Saturday morning and the Half Marathon on Sunday morning), but even more exciting than this new race and the extra bling is that I am going to be crossing the finish line of the Half Marathon with my best friend!! YAY!!

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Week 4 was not too shabby. I ran a sub 2-hour half marathon, got some fun speed work in, and felt great after my recovery work outs. Normally the week after a race I would try and take it a little bit easier, but I have another half marathon in a month, so I am still trying to keep the intensity up.

As you can see, towards the end of the week I forgot to foam roll and stretch - which I need to get back on! I think I actually may publish this post and then get on the ground to start :). All in all I would say this was a very successful workout week!

Ryan has been trying to talk me into going to a San Diego Gulls game for a while now. Not that I didn't want to go, but we just hadn't made it a priority and put it on our calendar. Earlier in the week I suggested to Ry that we should really go soon since the end of the season will be coming up soon. We looked at their schedule and they had a few home games this weekend - one Friday, one Saturday and one Sunday. We decided we would go to the Friday night game since we normally go to church Saturday night.

They play in Escondido at the local ice rink (just like any small rink, they had 2 sets of bleachers on one side, a little concession area, and an area where you could buy Gulls merch). They are more of a 'club' team than a minor league team I think. Maybe more like an after college team. There were actually a ton of fans there (although about a fourth of them for kids from Brazil that seemed to be there on a field trip).

We participated in CHUCK THE PUCK - where you pay $1 for a little foam puck and during the intermission between periods 2 and 3 you throw them on the ice and try to get them closest to the cone. I think mine was actually about the 4th closest, but unfortunately only the first two places won anything (first place won half the pot - $40 and second place won a foam Gulls finger).

We had a lot of fun - but hey, Ry and I can make just about anything fun! We grabbed one of their schedules to hang on the fridge and we will probably try and make it to another game before the end of the season. Not to mention, this is feeding Ryan's desire to want to play hockey even more :)

Friday, January 25, 2013

McFarland, Leslie McClurg, age 69 of Rochester Hills, January 24, 2013. Loving mother of Leigh (Peter) Sarfati, Kathleen (Michael) Barth, Kent (Maureen) McFarland, Maureen McFarland (Bron Roeder), and the late Adam McFarland. Cherished grandmother of Marley, Theo, Michael, Meghan, Joe, Paul, Brennen, Isabelle, and Gavin. Sister of James (Charlene) McClurg. Aunt of Aaron and Ryan. Leslie was a beautiful soul, who cared deeply for her family and friends. She loved good food, a good book, traveling, quilting and being with the people she loved. Leslie exemplified grace, and she will be dearly missed. A celebration of Leslie’s life will be held Tuesday, January 29, 2013 at the Meeting House in Rochester, MI from 5:30 pm to 6:30 pm. In lieu of flowers memorials may be made to Leslie’s favorite charities, kiva.org or thewaterproject.org. Arrangements in the care of the Potere-Modetz Funeral Home, Rochester. Online guestbook www.modetzfuneralhomes.com

Memorials:In Lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Leslie's favorite charitiesKiva.org or thewaterproject.orgService:5:30 pm to 6:30 pm on Tuesday, January 29, 2013 A celebration of Leslie's Life will be held at the Meeting House, 301 S. Main St., Rochester, MI.

A massage tool can build muscles.

Use a foam roller for postrun recovery? Smart move: This simple tool acts as a deep-tissue massager, working out kinks in overused muscles. But its benefits don't end there--it can also build strength and stability. Because the foam roller has a curved, unstable surface, adding it to an exercise, like a plank, suddenly gives a standard move a challenging twist. "Balancing on a foam roller requires your body to recruit more muscles, especially in your core, to perform the move," says Tyler G. Travis, executive director of Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine Medical Fitness and Wellness Center, who created this routine. Try to do these exercises two to three times a week (on easy-run days so you're not too wiped out) to build total-body strength that'll help improve performance and guard against injury.

3. PUSH-UP WITH ARM LIFTWorks biceps, triceps, chest, shoulders, abdominalsTO DO: Lower into a push-up with your left palm on the ground and your right palm on a foam roller. Push up and lift the roller until it's parallel to your chest. Do three sets of eight to 12 reps with each arm.

4. WALL SQUATWorks quadriceps, glutes, abdominalsTO DO: Stand with a foam roller between your midback and a wall and your feet shoulder width apart. Slowly squat down toward the floor until the foam roller reaches your shoulder blades. Stand and repeat eight to 12 times for three sets.

5. BRIDGE WITH LEG LIFTWorks glutes, hamstrings, quads, abdominalsTO DO: Lie on your back, heels on a foam roller. Raise your hips up toward the ceiling, then extend your right leg. Bring your right leg down and hips back to ground. Do three sets of eight to 12 on each leg.

I just got done with an AWESOME run! It started off less than stellar (I was hoping to run 3 miles in about 24 minutes - and I missed that goal), I still had a blast. It was raining out, but on the warmer side (in the mid-60*s). Reminded me of our fun Spring soccer practices (who doesn't love slide tackling in the warm rain?!).

Anyway, since I did my half marathon on Sunday I decided I would do an easy 3 miles today (figuring my Friday runs between half marathons would be 3 miles, then 10 miles, then 3 miles for my taper). I thought I would try and push it and shoot for 8 minute miles - putting me at 24:00. Around the mile and a half mark I knew I wasn't going to hit that goal (my first mile I was at about 7:54 and then I was around 8:30 minute mile pace when I checked my watch again), so I decided instead of doing 3 miles crazy fast (for me) I would do 4 miles somewhat speedy.

I checked my watch around mile 2.5 and realized I was still sticking with a 8:30ish minute mile pace and thought I would try to see what I could do for my 5K time. Before today my PR (personal record) was 27:02. I heard my Garmin beep at mile 3 and I was at 25 minutes (a minute off what I was shooting for, but hey, still great in my book) and decided I would keep watching my GPS to see what my 5K time would be. I ended up getting the 3.1 miles in 25:45 - which is 79 seconds faster than my prior PR! I decided to try and finish strong and ended up finishing my 4 miles in 33:11 - NOT TOO SHABBY especially after doing a sub 2 hour half marathon 5 days ago!

I had a huge grin on my fast for most of the run. Not only was I running fast and feeling great, but the weather was just a hoot. The rain was hitting me in my eyes, so I would put on my sunnies, but then they would fog up, so I'd have to take them off, etc. [Maybe it is time to look into a visor or something other than my Target $10 sunglasses :)]

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Our Race Hotel. Hmmmm… Where to start…. Let’s just say that
Ryan told me I wasn’t allowed to book hotels any more. And anywhere that we do
stay the staff must be wearing nice polo’s with the hotels name embroidered on it
or in suit jacket.

Well, when we pulled up and checked in, both Ryan and I
thought, this seems to be better than the last one (see the post here about the
hotel I booked us for my last Disneyland Half Marathon). At least they didn’t
have to give us the TV remote out of a drawer at check in. But… I guess all of
the clichés are true… You get what you pay for. Looks can be deceiving.

The hotel called us earlier in the day asking us how many
beds we actually needed. The room that we originally booked was for 2 doubles
(since that was the cheapest room type). I guess they had run out of double
rooms and were wondering if we could take one with just a single bed and give a
larger group the room with 2 beds. Of course we offered the room up and said we
only needed one bed.

When we checked in we were given a key for room 333. The
strange thing was that we only saw 2 floors. We saw a stairwell in the corner
of the building, so we thought we’d check it out. We went up and it said
PRIVATE (maybe the owners live on site…). I went looking further, but Ryan
decided to go to the front desk to ask. I found another stairwell (even more
sketchy than the first) and decided to venture up.

The stairwell was dark and at the top of the stairs was a
laundry basket that had clothes and other personal items in it. I had to
chuckle (especially since Ryan wasn’t with me at the moment) and say “I know
this will be just another one of our ‘adventures’, but WHAT did I get us
into?!’. At least this hall way had some doors in it, so I walked a little
further. A door that said 331 – hey we are getting closer. Then a BUNCH of
stuff... like a razor scooter, a box of diapers, a dirty microwave, clothes in
boxes, a gallon of milk, laundry detergent, etc… OH NO! Is this an episode of Hotel Hallway Hoarders?!

This is NOT an actual picture... I was scared to take a picture because I didn't want to be horrifyed later of what I allowed us to stay in...

I found our room and went in. The room wasn’t too bad –
other than all of the little dead gnats stuck to the screen. I whistled out the
window to Ryan (who was on his way back from the front desk, looks less than
pleased with me) waving that I had found our abode for the evening. (I was just
waiting for him to come down the cluttered hallway and tell me we were leaving
– thankfully he was up for the adventure – or at least didn’t want to start a
disagreement…).

We went over to Downtown Disney, to the race Expo, and then
went to dinner, so didn’t have to deal much with the hotel. Since my alarm was
set for 3:15am, I wanted to hit the sack early. We got back to the hotel around
7pm or so got ready for bed. We were lying in the bed when we heard a knock on
the door around 8pm. A KNOCK?! Someone would have to know where he or she were
going to come up and find us… We got slightly nervous and of course I made Ryan
answer the door (mind you – there is no peep hole and the ‘security lock’ was a
little lock that you would use to lock a bathroom stall). A lady was at our
door… smoking… Ryan looked at her a little funny and she asked if Jessica lived
here. [AH, now it makes sense. Maybe they used this floor for ‘residents’ that
live there for longer than say 3 months. We are assuming that Jessica lived in
the room we were in, but was either asked to leave or left and her stuff was
all in the hallway. ] Back to the story… She was smoking in the hall, so much
so that when Ryan opened the door our room smelt like smoke for a good 20
minutes after she left. Well, of course, he said, “No, we are hotel guests, we
don’t live here, nor does a Jessica.”

Hopefully this isn’t too offensive, but I asked Ryan is he
thought she was a prostitute. I mean we were in a pretty sketchy area of the
hotel (mind you, we were like a stones throw from Downtown Disney, so we
weren’t in a rough neighborhood, just a questionable section of a questionable
hotel). He thought that maybe it was Jessica’s friend that was coming to pick see
her.

Later that evening (I would say around 12 midnight) we heard
a bunch of racket in the hallway. The same smoker lady’s voice was out in the
hallway. It sounded like they came back for all the ‘goodies’ that Jessica had
left in the hall. All the goodies BUT THE MILK. We found the milk on the bottom
stair of the sketchy stairwell when we went down for the race around 3:45am.

Thankfully we were only staying in the hotel the one night.
Ryan said that if we were staying in the hotel any longer than a night and
needed to shower (we showered Saturday morning before heading up to Disney and
then were back home by around 9am Sunday and showered again at our place) he
suggested we would have bought a bar of soap and then gone on some of the water
rides in Disneyland and California Adventure to get clean. (I didn’t look in
the shower, but he said it was pretty nasty)

I do have to say I think if we were on floor 1 or 2 of the
hotel, we would have been fine. I think the hidden room up in the back corner
of the hotel and the hallway chalked full of personal items threw us for a
loop. But hey, at least I had my best friend along for the ride, right?! And
hey, better us than someone else, right?!

Wowser. Quite an adventure... It is easier to laugh about
now that we do not have to walk around the hotel room with our sandals on
because we are nervous about what may be on the floor. [We were telling a
friend about it and she just laughed at me. She said, you know you can afford
something better, right? And I DO know that we CAN afford it, it is just hard
for me to justify spending more than $60 on a bed when we can drive there in 45
minutes]

Thankfully for the Disneyland Half Marathon in September I
am already working with a friend on hotel reservations [it will be our 5 year
wedding anniversary August 16th, our 10 year dating anniversary
September 1st, my 29th birthday September 10th,
Ryan’s 30th birthday September 13th, and Ryan’s FIRST
HALF MARATHON on September 1st [more on that later] – so I figured
with all of that celebrating we can splurge a little on a nicer hotel room –
not to mention Ryan might never let me book anything again if it is less than
perfect this time J]
– we are even thinking of staying on Disney Property.

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

In my recap of the Tinker Bell Meet Up I mentioned that we tried some YUMMY food. The chefs at Disney were kind enough to send over the recipe for the treat they shared with us (and EXTRA bonus points because it is vegetarian friendly). For the version they made us, since it was still breakfast time, they put a poached egg on the top (although I noticed in the recipe they left that portion off).